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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00I once read that the most dangerous thing a woman can do is save a man's life.
00:00:04I didn't believe it.
00:00:06I was 22, idealistic, and three semesters short of a nursing degree.
00:00:11When I found a man bleeding out in an alley behind a fast food restaurant,
00:00:14I didn't think about danger.
00:00:16I just pressed my hands to the wound.
00:00:18I didn't know his name.
00:00:19I didn't know that the blood soaking through my uniform
00:00:22belonged to the most feared cartel boss on the East Coast.
00:00:25I didn't know that behind those dark half-conscious eyes
00:00:27was a man who would remember everything I did.
00:00:30Every word, every touch, every desperate instruction I gave him in the dark.
00:00:34I didn't know he would come back for me.
00:00:36Three months later, a man named Emilio Reyes walked into my life
00:00:40and told me I had inherited a fortune from my late aunt on one condition.
00:00:44Marriage. To him. Immediately.
00:00:47No. I said no.
00:00:49He smiled like I hadn't spoken at all.
00:00:52This is the story of how I married a criminal.
00:00:55How I hated him, feared him,
00:00:57and somewhere in the middle of all the lies he built our life on
00:01:00fell desperately, irreversibly in love with him.
00:01:03I want to tell you I fought it.
00:01:05I want to tell you I was smarter than this.
00:01:07But the truth is,
00:01:08the moment I pressed my hands to his chest in that alley,
00:01:11I was already his.
00:01:13I just didn't know it yet.
00:01:15The alley behind the shop smells like grease and rain.
00:01:19I take the trash out at midnight
00:01:22because Miguel never does
00:01:23and I'm too tired to fight about it.
00:01:30That's when I hear it.
00:01:31A shuffle.
00:01:33A grunt.
00:01:34The unmistakable sound of someone about to do something terrible.
00:01:37I peek my head out.
00:01:40First mistake of the night.
00:01:44Hello?
00:01:48Two men immediately pin me against the wall.
00:01:51I open my mouth to scream.
00:01:52Someone beats me to it.
00:01:53He steps out of the dark like he owns it.
00:01:56Tall, jaw tight.
00:01:58One hand pressed to his ribs.
00:02:00He's bleeding.
00:02:01I can see it soaking through his shirt
00:02:03in a dark, spreading stain.
00:02:05He shouldn't be standing.
00:02:07Standing anyway.
00:02:08Let her go.
00:02:11The men charge.
00:02:13He moves.
00:02:13Fast, precise, brutal.
00:02:17And it's over in seconds.
00:02:19One man clutches his arm, screaming.
00:02:22The other is already gone.
00:02:26And then the stranger folds like paper,
00:02:29thing the wet pavement before I can catch him.
00:02:33I drag him inside.
00:02:35I don't know why.
00:02:40I'm a nursing school dropout with shaking hands
00:02:43and no business saving anyone.
00:02:46But I press gauze to his chest
00:02:48and count his breaths
00:02:50and tell him to stay with me.
00:02:53And somewhere between one breath and the next,
00:02:55I start to believe he might actually listen.
00:02:57He opens his eyes, grabs my wrist hard enough to bruise.
00:03:02No one has ever seen me like this.
00:03:06You're dead.
00:03:07Stop moving or you'll bleed more.
00:03:09He lets go.
00:03:12He passes out.
00:03:14I keep working.
00:03:15By the time I come back with antibiotics,
00:03:18he's gone.
00:03:19The room is empty except for the bloody gons
00:03:22and the faint smell of something expensive,
00:03:25cologne, maybe, or power.
00:03:31I stand in the doorway
00:03:32and feel something I can't name settle into my chest.
00:03:38Hope you make it, stranger.
00:03:45The days pass.
00:03:47My life goes on.
00:03:49The midnight shifts blur into each other
00:03:52and I almost convince myself
00:03:54the whole thing was a fever dream.
00:03:57The blood.
00:03:58The alley.
00:04:00The man who threatened to kill me
00:04:01while I was saving his life.
00:04:04Almost.
00:04:06It isn't until three months later
00:04:09that I understand the mistake I made that night.
00:04:12It wasn't peeking my head out into that alley.
00:04:15It was pulling the stranger back from the edge.
00:04:18I'm wiping down the counter
00:04:19when his face fills the TV screen above the register.
00:04:25Emilio Reyes.
00:04:26East Coast Cartel King.
00:04:29Dangerous.
00:04:30Untouchable.
00:04:32The customers are whispering.
00:04:33The word monster drifts past my ear like smoke.
00:04:38I stare at the screen
00:04:40and the memory hits me like a cold wave.
00:04:43His hand locked around my wrist.
00:04:45Even through the blood loss.
00:04:49No one has ever seen me like this.
00:04:53You're dead.
00:04:56Shit.
00:04:57I set down the tray.
00:04:59I turn for the door.
00:05:01A black bag drops over my head.
00:05:03The last thing I hear before the world goes dark.
00:05:06You're coming with us.
00:05:14They take the bag off in a room that costs more than my entire life.
00:05:17He's standing by the window with his back to me,
00:05:20and even from behind I can feel the weight of him.
00:05:23The absolute, unharried certainty of a man who has never once been told no.
00:05:29He turns around slowly, like he has all the time in the world, like I'm not hyperventilating in the middle
00:05:36of his Persian rug.
00:05:37He looks at me the way you look at something you already own.
00:05:40Hello, wife.
00:05:42Wife?
00:05:43He pulls out a file and slides it across the desk.
00:05:47Leticia Vierito, my aunt, who I barely knew, who apparently knew him very well.
00:05:53She raised him.
00:05:54He called her family.
00:05:55And when she died, she left everything to me.
00:05:59One million dollars.
00:06:02I stare at the number until the zeros blur.
00:06:06You're handing out one million dollars to me?
00:06:08Just like this?
00:06:10Of course not.
00:06:12Your inheritance comes with a condition.
00:06:14Marry me for one year.
00:06:16Part of me wants to laugh.
00:06:17The part that's been eating ramen for six months.
00:06:20Drowning in debt.
00:06:22Too proud to ask for help.
00:06:23One million dollars.
00:06:24I could breathe again.
00:06:26I could actually breathe.
00:06:28But then, the other part of me kepts up.
00:06:31The part that recognizes his face from every news broadcast.
00:06:34Every whispered warning.
00:06:36Every story that ends badly.
00:06:38Marry a mafia king with a promise of one million dollars?
00:06:42Is this Watt Mac novel really happening to me?
00:06:44Me?
00:06:45I set down the file.
00:06:47What do you get out of this?
00:06:50I'm a nobody.
00:06:51He steps closer.
00:06:53Close enough that I have to tilt my head back to hold his gaze.
00:06:56And I hate that I do it.
00:06:59You're not a nobody.
00:07:02Don't ever say that again.
00:07:06He says it quietly.
00:07:08Too quietly.
00:07:09Too gently.
00:07:10Like he means it.
00:07:12Like he's been thinking about it.
00:07:14And the words land somewhere soft and unprotected.
00:07:17Before I can get my guard back up.
00:07:21I don't know what to do with them.
00:07:23So I look away, down at the floor.
00:07:25And that's when I see it.
00:07:27A dark stain in the carpet.
00:07:28Old and brown at the edges.
00:07:31Blood.
00:07:32Someone's blood.
00:07:33Soaked into the fibers and never fully cleaned away.
00:07:35The word yes dies in my throat.
00:07:38No.
00:07:40Then you just made your first mistake as my future wife.
00:07:48His hand moves toward his hip.
00:07:50My survival instincts shoot up.
00:07:54Wait.
00:07:55I didn't mean no.
00:07:57I just...
00:07:57I need time.
00:07:59To think.
00:08:01I'm allowed to think, right?
00:08:03A beat.
00:08:04His hand stills.
00:08:05Of course.
00:08:07I try the door.
00:08:10Locked.
00:08:11Of course it's locked.
00:08:13My heart hammers against my ribs as his footsteps cross the room behind me.
00:08:18Quiet.
00:08:19Unhurried.
00:08:20Inevitable.
00:08:21His hand covers mine on the knob.
00:08:23His mouth is close enough to my ear that I feel the warmth of his breath.
00:08:27And every rational thought I have dissolves.
00:08:30I'm a king, Mia.
00:08:32Don't even think about running.
00:08:36I'll see you at the altar.
00:08:38He twists the knob.
00:08:39The door swings open.
00:08:40I don't walk out.
00:08:42I flee.
00:08:43I nearly collide with a man in the hallway.
00:08:46Younger than Emilio.
00:08:47Easier to read.
00:08:48With a smile that doesn't reach his eyes.
00:08:50He watches me scramble past and says nothing.
00:08:53Behind me, I hear him say something to Emilio in a low voice.
00:08:57I don't stop to listen.
00:08:58Back in my apartment, Serena screams at me through the phone for ten solid minutes.
00:09:03I hold it away from my ear and stare at the ceiling.
00:09:05You should have left him bleeding in that alley!
00:09:08I know.
00:09:09He's a monster!
00:09:10My food's here.
00:09:11Talk later.
00:09:15I open the door expecting delivery.
00:09:18A gun barrel.
00:09:19Cold metal.
00:09:21Pointed at my face.
00:09:22Behind it, a man I've never seen before.
00:09:26Silver-haired and soft-voiced.
00:09:28With the calm of someone who has done terrible things for a very long time.
00:09:32And at his feet, crumbled, bleeding, reaching for my ankle.
00:09:36A boy I've never met.
00:09:37But somehow, recognizing the shape of his jaw, the curve of his nose.
00:09:43A stranger smiles.
00:09:46Mia Espinosa.
00:09:48We need to talk.
00:09:53His name is Franco Palacio.
00:09:55I am Franco.
00:09:56He says it like a title, like something I should already know and fear.
00:10:00He says it while one of his men pins my arms behind me.
00:10:04And another kicks the boy hard enough to crack ribs.
00:10:08Tomas.
00:10:09Your cousin.
00:10:11Leticia's only son.
00:10:12I didn't even know I had a cousin.
00:10:16I'm Emilio Reyes' worst nightmare.
00:10:19I don't know, Emilio.
00:10:21That's a lie.
00:10:23Of course I lied.
00:10:24I would say anything to get out of this.
00:10:29This gangster war I've somehow wandered into.
00:10:32Dragging a cousin I've never met along with me.
00:10:35Maybe I really shouldn't have saved Emilio that night.
00:10:42He ignores me and crouches beside Tomas, dragging a knife down his cheek so slowly, so precisely,
00:10:49that the line of red it draws looks almost surgical.
00:10:53Tomas makes a sound I'll hear in my sleep for years.
00:10:56You're gonna marry Emilio Reyes?
00:10:57You're gonna give him an heir.
00:11:03And that child will be born under my command.
00:11:08What?
00:11:09A wife.
00:11:10A baby.
00:11:11That's all it takes to ruin a man like him.
00:11:16You're gonna be my weapon, sweetheart.
00:11:19He stands, moves back to Tomas, and presses the flat of the blade against his eyelid.
00:11:25One month.
00:11:25Get pregnant.
00:11:31Or your cousin loses more than an eye.
00:11:35I can't breathe.
00:11:36I can't think.
00:11:36The room has shrunk to the size of that knife.
00:11:39That eye.
00:11:40That terrible soft sound Tomas makes when the blade presses harder.
00:11:45Stop.
00:11:45Left eye.
00:11:48Or right.
00:11:49Stop!
00:11:50I'll do it!
00:11:52The blade lifts.
00:11:53Franco smiles, like I've given him a gift.
00:11:56Then the front door sweener splinters off its hinges.
00:12:02Emilio doesn't come in like a rescue.
00:12:04He comes in like weather.
00:12:06Sudden, total, impossible to argue with.
00:12:09His men fan out behind him.
00:12:12Franco's men scatter, and then it's just the two of us, and Tomas is gone, dragged out in the chaos.
00:12:19And I'm on the floor, with my knees pulled to my chest, and my whole body shaking so hard my
00:12:27teeth click together.
00:12:28I don't hear him cross the room, I don't hear him cross the room, I just feel the air change.
00:12:32Mia.
00:12:33His voice is different, softer than I've heard it.
00:12:36I look up, and something in his face does things I don't expect.
00:12:41It cracks, just at the edges, just for a second.
00:12:45I don't decide to move, I just do it.
00:12:48I throw myself at him.
00:12:52And his arms close around me before I can second guess it.
00:12:56And I press my face into his chest, and cry in a way I haven't cried since I was a
00:13:02little girl.
00:13:04Ugly, and desperate, and completely undignified.
00:13:08He holds me like he means it.
00:13:11He doesn't speak.
00:13:13Doesn't ask questions.
00:13:15Just keeps one hand on the back of my head, and breathes slowly, steadily, like he's trying to teach me
00:13:22how.
00:13:23And gradually, my shaking slows.
00:13:25When I finally pull back, his expression has closed again.
00:13:28But his eyes haven't.
00:13:31You're my woman, Mia.
00:13:33Your tears belong to me.
00:13:36I should have a response to that.
00:13:38I don't.
00:13:39I just look at him, and feel the words settle somewhere deep and permanent.
00:13:45Like a key turning in a lock I didn't know I had.
00:13:48He wipes my face with his thumb, gentle, careful, like I'm something worth being careful with.
00:13:56I'm not your woman.
00:13:58I haven't agreed to anything yet.
00:14:01I know.
00:14:02We should talk.
00:14:04He says it quietly.
00:14:05He doesn't push.
00:14:07He just looks at me like he's already decided, and he's willing to wait.
00:14:11That might be the most frightening thing he's done yet.
00:14:15The next morning, we sit on opposite sides of a conference table with a contract between us, sick enough to
00:14:21stop a bullet.
00:14:23Our marriage contract.
00:14:26Read it.
00:14:29Terms and conditions.
00:14:37I keep my spine straight as I flip through the pages.
00:14:41I try very hard to absorb what I'm about to sign my life onto.
00:14:46But not a single word makes it to my brain.
00:14:52Instead, Franco's voice echoes like a curse on a loop.
00:14:56Marry Emilio.
00:14:58Baby.
00:14:59One month.
00:15:02My weapon.
00:15:05To save a cousin I barely know in a gangster war I never asked to be part of?
00:15:09I'm going to lie to a cartel king sitting right across from me, expecting a real marriage.
00:15:16Of course I'll sign this contract.
00:15:18But it's not my choice.
00:15:19It was never my choice.
00:15:22I am completely, utterly out of control of this situation, and I have to pretend otherwise.
00:15:28Perfectly.
00:15:28Or Tomas pays for it.
00:15:31Everything okay?
00:15:35I startle.
00:15:36He's watching me.
00:15:37Of course he's watching me.
00:15:40Men like him watch everything.
00:15:45I need to smooth this over.
00:15:47I need to smooth this over.
00:15:47For my cousin.
00:15:49The contract doesn't mention sleeping arrangements.
00:15:53He goes very still.
00:15:56Sleeping arrangements.
00:16:00We'd be married.
00:16:04It would be natural that we...
00:16:07The chair scrapes back.
00:16:09He's in front of me in two steps, leaning over the table with both hands planted on either side of
00:16:16the contract, close enough that I can smell his cologne and feel the warmth radiating off his skin.
00:16:20It's natural we fuck.
00:16:25My breath stops.
00:16:30Do you want me to fuck you?
00:16:34There is no good answer to that question.
00:16:41There is only the truth.
00:16:43Yes.
00:16:44Obviously.
00:16:45Embarrassingly.
00:16:46Inconveniently yes.
00:16:48And the reason behind it.
00:16:50Which I can never tell him.
00:16:55That's what husbands and wives do.
00:16:58We're not real husband and wife.
00:17:00This is a contract.
00:17:05You're attractive and rich.
00:17:08Any woman would want you.
00:17:13He tilts his head.
00:17:15Something dangerous flickering in his eyes.
00:17:18You think I'm attractive?
00:17:20I'm attractive.
00:17:22Yes.
00:17:24Are you lying to me?
00:17:29No.
00:17:30I'm not lying.
00:17:32That's the problem.
00:17:34I'm not lying at all and he can see it.
00:17:37And the slow curve of his mouth tells me he's been able to see it this whole time.
00:17:43He lifts me onto the table in one motion.
00:17:46I gasp.
00:17:48Not in fear, which would make sense.
00:17:50In something that runs hotter than fear.
00:17:53He nudges my knees apart.
00:17:55Not roughly.
00:17:56Just firmly.
00:17:58With the uncurried confidence of a man who already knows the answer.
00:18:05You can lie with words.
00:18:07Not with your body.
00:18:09His hand slides up my inner thigh.
00:18:15Tell me you want me.
00:18:17Tell me it's not just the contract.
00:18:19Thank God help me, I do.
00:18:27I don't know.
00:18:28She's sitting on my conference table with her knees apart.
00:18:31And her eyes blown wide.
00:18:33And I have never wanted to ruin someone so completely in my life.
00:18:40I pull my hand back slowly, letting her watch her own wetness dripping on my fingers.
00:18:47Her breath stutters.
00:18:49Is this for me?
00:18:54Do I get you this wet just by talking to you?
00:19:01Yes.
00:19:02Her voice comes out wrecked and small and honest.
00:19:07And it pulls me back from the edge of something I can't afford.
00:19:12That voice.
00:19:13That lying, beautiful voice.
00:19:16I know something happened between her and Franco.
00:19:19I've known since the moment I walked into her apartment and found her on the floor.
00:19:23Because I wasn't there to rescue her.
00:19:25I was there to make her talk.
00:19:29Franco's men were already scattering when I kicked the door in.
00:19:32I had my gun up, finger on the trigger.
00:19:35Franco in my sights.
00:19:37And then I saw her.
00:19:40Curled on the floor, shaking.
00:19:43Small in a way that hit me somewhere, I don't let things hit me.
00:19:46I lowered the gun.
00:19:48I crossed the room.
00:19:50And the second she threw herself against my chest, I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding.
00:20:01The will I showed her, I fabricated it.
00:20:05My nanny, Leticia, was a kind woman, not a wealthy one.
00:20:11She didn't leave a million dollars.
00:20:13I forged every page.
00:20:16I needed a reason to keep Mia close.
00:20:20Somewhere I could watch her.
00:20:23Pull the truth out of her slowly.
00:20:25But that day, with her crying in my arms, I stopped caring about the plan.
00:20:32I decided I had to have her.
00:20:35One way or another, I never expected the other way to involve this many lies.
00:20:39I hate lies.
00:20:42I hate lies.
00:20:46I hate lies.
00:21:09Watch my back side and press one finger inside her.
00:21:11She moans, hips rolling forward instinctually.
00:21:17Hands gripping my shoulders like she needs something to hold onto.
00:21:23Emilio?
00:21:24god my name in her mouth like that i add a second finger and move faster watching her come undone
00:21:35and i am aching with how much i want her but i have a mission i need her confession
00:21:42if i handed you the inheritance right now no strings no crack would you still want me
00:21:49answer me yes more lies oh you little liar you have no idea what you just walked into
00:22:01he stops the absence of his touch is so sudden it punches the air out of me
00:22:06i look at him chest heaving completely undone and his face has already closed composed cool
00:22:12like none of it happened you're hiding something from me bad girls don't get to come
00:22:21sign the contract diego will help you move in tomorrow i sit on the edge of the conference
00:22:25table with his handkerchief in my hands and the ghost of his touch still burning under my skin
00:22:30and i stare at the closed door and try to remember who i am and why i'm here stay focused
00:22:36mia to us
00:22:38one month that's all that matters his mansion is the size of my entire neighborhood i drag my
00:22:43suitcase through the front door and try not to look like i've never seen marble floors before
00:22:47the staff lines up to greet me i shake everyone's hand and smile until my face hurts and somewhere in
00:22:51the middle of it emilio appears from a hallway and i make the mistake of asking if i'll be staying
00:22:55in his room we don't sleep in the same room
00:23:00he gives me a guest room with a bed too big for one person and curtains the color of champagne
00:23:04he drops a ring box into my palm without ceremony or eye contact wear it in public
00:23:09it fits perfectly i don't know why that makes my chest ache why are you so cold today i thought
00:23:14do you know what i do to people who betray me no i kill them every single one betrayal doesn't
00:23:20exist
00:23:20in my world are you keeping something from me mia tell him just tell him the words crowd my throat
00:23:26franco tomas the knife the deadline when i look up emilio is gone i need to get pregnant
00:23:32i need to do something
00:23:39this will have to do
00:23:42i carry a plate of cookies down the hall like an offering which honestly is exactly what it is
00:23:47this is the plan this is the whole plan i push open the study door 15 men look up at
00:23:52me simultaneously
00:23:54leave not you
00:23:59i stand there tugging the hem of my shorts down and trying to look like i haven't just made a
00:24:03catastrophic mistake you didn't just bring me cookies dressed like this i didn't know you were
00:24:06in a meeting i'm half mine to shoot every man who was just in this room please don't what do
00:24:11i do to
00:24:11a bad girl who interrupts my meeting do i bend you over this desk and spank your pretty little ass
00:24:15i
00:24:15shiver i should not shiver i shiver anyway do i force you down on your knees and make you take
00:24:19my cock
00:24:19or you could take me i can give you an heir
00:24:27no no condoms you're not on birth control i know something shifts in his expression the heat drains
00:24:34out of it replaced by something colder and more careful you want my baby why because your biggest
00:24:38enemy has my cousin and gave me a deadline and i have no other options and i'm terrified and i'm
00:24:43sorry
00:24:44because you're handsome and i'd really love to get out what get out i slide to the floor and stand
00:24:52there for one horrible second completely exposed the cookies the shorts the desperate transparent
00:24:57wanting of all of it and then i turn and walk out with whatever dignity i have left which is
00:25:01not much
00:25:02i need a new plan serena can you meet me i need to tell you everything outside my window the
00:25:09city hums
00:25:09and glitters like it doesn't know anything is wrong like the world is perfectly ordinary and i
00:25:13haven't spent the last week tangled up in a cartel king who sees straight through every lie i tell
00:25:18except the one that might get us both killed what did i get myself into
00:25:26thank god are you okay he didn't chain you up somewhere he's not no no dungeons i'm fine
00:25:33you don't look fine she's right i don't feel fine i feel like i'm playing three different
00:25:37chess games at once and losing all of them i start to tell her about franco about tomas about
00:25:41the deadline but before i can get past the first sentence are you okay you seem terrified of him
00:25:46of course i'm terrified his men run the entire east coast he could be listening to us right now
00:25:50serena you're not making sense why do you even know so much about who's your dad something shifts
00:25:54in her expression something serious and old and tired like she's been waiting for this question
00:25:59and dreading it at the same time mia it's time you know who i am the door exploding open a
00:26:04masked
00:26:04man with a gun raise screaming at everyone to get on the floor the cafe erupts into chaos i freeze
00:26:09i stand in the middle of it all and my body simply refuses to move like it's deciding whether any
00:26:14of
00:26:14this is real mia get down i can't move you deaf i said down the robber spots me move why
00:26:22can't i move
00:26:30for one second i think it's over marco put it down please
00:26:40i stand there with a stranger's arm around neck and think absurdly about the alley three months ago
00:26:44about how i peeked my head out and said hello like an idiot about how that one bad decision led
00:26:48to every
00:26:49bad decision after it a chain of dominoes i set off the moment i dragged a bleeding cartel king
00:26:53off the pavement i really shouldn't have saved him then the door opens again emilio walks in like he
00:26:57has nowhere else to be like this is a meeting he scheduled gun raised jaw set eyes finding me in
00:27:02under
00:27:02a second oh yeah who's she the president's wife emilio shoots him in the arm the arm around my
00:27:07throat goes slack i drop serena catches me no you're not i don't see what happens next the world tilts
00:27:14goes soft at the edges and i stop being able to hold myself up the last thing i feel before
00:27:19i
00:27:19feign is someone lifting me his arms his cologne that particular steadiness that shouldn't feel like
00:27:24safety but does i wake up in a bed that isn't mine it's too big too soft smells too expensive
00:27:31the ceiling
00:27:32is high and unfamiliar and for a disoriented moment i have no idea where i am or what year it
00:27:36is then i
00:27:37remember the gun the arm around my throat the sound of a shot i sit up too fast my head
00:27:41swims are you
00:27:42okay he's still in his suit he's looking at me with an intensity that doesn't belong on a face
00:27:47pretending not to care i think so where am i my bedroom your bedroom i thought we had separate
00:27:54rooms you also walked into my meeting in a pair of shorts and asked me to get you pregnant rules
00:27:58are
00:27:59flexible does that mean i can stay in your room now do you want to sleep with me that badly
00:28:05yes says
00:28:05every nerve in my body yes but not for the reason you think says the part of me that remembers
00:28:10tomás
00:28:10and franco and the deadline that is still ticking what if i say yes his eyes darken for one suspended
00:28:16second i think he's going to close the distance between us and my heart rate does something
00:28:20embarrassing he stands instead adjusts his jacket rest tomorrow's a big day what's tomorrow the
00:28:25engagement party where i tell the world you're mine am i falling for him no focus tomás one month
00:28:33the next morning a small army arrives at my door they work on me for two hours i sit in
00:28:38the chair and
00:28:39let them and feel like a doll being dressed for a party i didn't ask to attend which is technically
00:28:44exactly what's happening i slip out when they're arguing about earrings down the hall through the
00:28:48tall living room windows i spot emilio outside with diego he's in a sharp suit and he's furious jaw tight
00:28:54gesturing hard words muffled through the glass but unmistakably sharp he's beautiful when he's angry
00:28:58i noticed this and immediately wish i hadn't
00:29:03you're gonna tell me why you want my baby and what it have to do with palacio
00:29:07who the man at your apartment he knows he's known the realization lands slowly and then all at once and
00:29:13i think about every moment since he showed up at my door the conference table the handkerchief the
00:29:17drawer full of condoms and understand that he has been pulling at this thread the entire time
00:29:21i don't know what you're talking about do you know what happened to the last person who lied to me
00:29:27i cut out their tongue and made them eat it i hate them i blink hard he's a monster i
00:29:32tell myself
00:29:32remember that this isn't over i know it's never over that's the problem
00:29:39i walk in on emilio's arm in a dress that cost more than three months of my old salary
00:29:44diamonds at my throat and i feel like a very convincing fake emilio greets people with a smile
00:29:49that doesn't touch his eyes and steers me through the room with a hand at the small of my back
00:29:53that
00:29:53feels like both a claim and a warning stay close don't talk to anyone i'm not allowed to talk to
00:29:58people you've caused enough trouble on your own that wasn't in the contract i'm a cartel boss
00:30:03mia the contract won't stop me from doing whatever i want i don't see franco until his hand closes
00:30:09around my arm and yanks me into the shadows hello little mia you didn't forget our deal what are you
00:30:15doing here emilio invited we go way back emilio invited him the information sits in my chest like a
00:30:20stone i think about the look on emilio's face through the window furious deliberate i think
00:30:24about this isn't over you've been living with him for three weeks little man why aren't you pregnant yet
00:30:37what did you do to her nothing we were just talking why don't you ask her this scissors land
00:30:42between us like a grenade i watch emilio's grip loosen just slightly just for a moment and see it
00:30:47on his face the recalculation the betrayal trying to find its shape our eyes meet and i have never
00:30:52felt so exposed in my life then de leon is there murmuring something about engagement photos and
00:30:57emilio exhale through his teeth and goes i watch him walk away with his shoulders set and his jaw tight
00:31:02and something aching and hollow opens up in the middle of my chest you know something's wrong tell
00:31:07him yourself before this ends badly i can't under the bright lights of the photo area emmanuel and i stand
00:31:14six inches apart like strangers the photographer keeps asking us to move closer we comply in small
00:31:19miserable increments is it that unborable standing next to me only when you're mad at me i'm mad because
00:31:24you're hiding something i can't perfect now give each other a little kiss the silence that follows is
00:31:29approximately a thousand years long then emilio grabs my chin and kisses me it's not gentle it's a
00:31:34question with teeth demanding and frustrated and searingly humiliatingly effective the camera flashes go
00:31:39off like a small storm that was my first kiss that was my first kiss and he used it like
00:31:44perpuntuation
00:31:47his mouth was just there angry and warm and nothing like i'd imagined and i have absolutely
00:31:52been imagining it and that is a problem i don't have time for right now he was furious and i
00:31:57still got
00:31:58turned on what is wrong with me did you sleep with him what who franco palacio is that what you're
00:32:05hiding is that why you wouldn't kiss me no i didn't sleep with him you shoved me away like i
00:32:08was
00:32:08contagious breathe i've never i haven't the fury in his expression shifts slowly like a tide going
00:32:13out it gives way to something quiet and more careful breathe through your nose he presses his
00:32:17lips to mine and this time it's nothing like before soft slow like he's asking instead of taking like
00:32:22he has all the time in the world and intends to use it one more i don't say no i
00:32:27don't say anything
00:32:27he kisses me again deeper one hand sliding to the back of my neck and i stop being able to
00:32:32think in
00:32:32anything but sensation warmth and the smell of his cologne and the ridiculous inconvenient certainty that i am in
00:32:37very serious trouble say yes ma'am yes
00:32:43then he stops not all at once he trails his lips down my throat unhurried while i'm still trying to
00:32:48remember what air is for his hands are at my waist mine are in his hair the whole world has
00:32:51narrowed
00:32:52down to this locked bathroom this basin his mouth but i don't think you deserve it yet what you're still
00:32:56hiding something from me you and my worst enemy i can't tell you i'm so he drops to his knees
00:33:01in front
00:33:01of me parting my legs and i barely have time to process what's happening before his mouth is on
00:33:06me and my head snaps back and i forget every coherent thought i've ever had you'll tell me
00:33:10eventually before it's too late he's using this against me i know he's using this against me i can't
00:33:16make myself care a security guard threatening to break it down promise me you'll tell me the truth
00:33:21or that guard walks in and finds you like this that's you can't that's blackmail yes i promise
00:33:26i'll tell you everything turns back to me eyes dark remember your promise
00:33:33he leaves i sit on the basin in the sudden quiet chest heaving ring glittering on my finger and
00:33:38press my hands to my face he used pleasure as a weapon and the worst part the part i can't
00:33:43stop
00:33:43thinking about as i swipe off the basin and fix my lipstick and walk back out into the party
00:33:47is that i would let him do it again sleep well you don't look like you slept well i can
00:33:57arrange
00:33:57a sleep therapist you used sex to black rail me no i don't need a therapist i need a cop
00:34:02you think a
00:34:02cop would help no because you're the cartel king and you do whatever you want not everything i want
00:34:08not when it comes to you i don't know what to do with that i look at my hands i
00:34:12don't like being lied
00:34:13to mia i grew up in this world betrayal is the worst sin there is but i'll wait tell me
00:34:18when you're
00:34:18ready something in my chest loosens just slightly the first millimeter of relief in weeks i'll tell
00:34:24you at the right time i need to think it through that's all i need i have money you have
00:34:30peanuts
00:34:30buy whatever you want i'll see you tonight fiancee i look up from five credit cards and the ring on
00:34:35my
00:34:35finger and the ghost of his mouth on mine and i think about tobos and franco's deadline and the promise
00:34:40i made in a locked bathroom i'll tell him at the right time my phone buzzes it's a message from
00:34:45an
00:34:45unknown number a photo toas beaten barely consciousness a map pin one line of text come
00:34:51alone i'm running some errands today you can come along let's see how long you last
00:34:58i know that's what it was a list of errands emilio had quietly arranged a list of things i was
00:35:03supposed to need a list of reasons to stay close to the house i ditched them at the corner of
00:35:08fifth
00:35:08and character slipped into a doorway while they ran past in the wrong direction and stood there for
00:35:12three whole seconds feeling like i'd actually won something the address was a neighborhood that had
00:35:17given up on itself cracked pavement board windows a smell like rust and old rain the building at the
00:35:23end of the block looked like it was held together by habit i pushed the door open anyway he needs
00:35:28me i
00:35:28told myself he can't hurt me yet there's no baby the whole scene arranged like something from a bad movie
00:35:36little mia took you long enough i had to get rid of emilio's people i'm not talking about that i'm
00:35:41talking about why you're not pregnant he looked up when he heard me my stomach turned he started
00:35:45pulling one of the women closer making a show of it watching my face
00:35:50when something slammed into the building from the back a sound like the world rearranging itself
00:36:01franko got one hand on my arm before a gunshot punched through the air and he dropped
00:36:10emilio stood in the doorway guns still raised still smoking he looked at franko on the floor for
00:36:16exactly one second then he looked at me you okay did he hurt you i couldn't make words happen i
00:36:24just
00:36:25shook my head against his chest and kept shaking take care of the rest we're leaving then he lifted
00:36:30me literally lifted me and carried me out of that building like i weighed nothing like it was the most
00:36:35natural thing in the world like he'd been doing it his whole life outside the afternoon light was so
00:36:40ordinary it almost hurt i kept waiting for him to put me down to say something cold to remind me
00:36:48that
00:36:48this was a contract and feelings weren't included he didn't he just held me against his chest in the
00:36:53back seat while diego drove and the city slipped past the windows like a film i wasn't part of
00:36:57he set me on the living room sofa carefully gently and told the staff to leave with a single look
00:37:02the
00:37:03room emptied in seconds it was just us and the afternoon quiet and the weight of everything that
00:37:08had happened in that filthy room he threatened my cousin he wanted me to have your baby so he could
00:37:13use the child as leverage against you why didn't you come to me he said he'd kill tomas if i
00:37:17did
00:37:17your cousin was working with gladio he owed him money they built this track together for you the word
00:37:24together landed like a stone what he gambled himself into a grave palazio owned him i stared at my hands
00:37:33the whole architecture of the pastures rearranged itself in my head toas weeping on my floor the
00:37:38threats all of it planned all of it aimed at me sorry isn't gonna cut it
00:37:45i thought he was going to be cold about it that's what i braced for the cartel king voice
00:37:50the gun on the table voice that i told you so wrapped in ice instead he said something i didn't
00:37:55expect at all you own me i dropped meetings to pull you out of that coffee shop i kissed you
00:38:01at
00:38:01our engagement party when i should have been shaking hands i couldn't kill you when you lied to my face
00:38:05three times and i tried i sat there and i tried and i couldn't do it don't quote that stupid
00:38:10contract to
00:38:10me when you own me mia espinoza body and soul as much as i own you kiss me like you
00:38:17own me his jaw
00:38:18worked he said something about not being able to stop once he started i didn't let him finish i grabbed
00:38:23his collar and pulled him down to me and for one second he went still with pure shock and then
00:38:28he took
00:38:28over kissing me like he'd been keeping it locked up for months which i think he had yes do whatever
00:38:34you
00:38:34want me punish me fuck me like you own me he looked at me for a long moment something fierce
00:38:41and half
00:38:41undone in his face don't say i didn't warn you mia
00:38:50there's a mirror above the dresser in his bedroom i didn't notice it until he bent me over the drawers
00:38:55and his mouth found my neck and i looked up and saw us his hands in my hair my face
00:38:59flushed his eyes
00:39:00burning into mine through the glass look in the mirror look how slutty you get for me i couldn't
00:39:06look away i'm the only one who gets to see you like this do you understand yes lift your dress
00:39:13watch when i take you what followed i will not describe in detail because there are no adequate
00:39:18words for it i'll say that every time my eyes dropped he cupped my chin and brought my gaze back
00:39:23to the mirror mine every time he said mine i believed him more completely than i've believed
00:39:27anything in my life mine mine mine afterward we lay in the dark his arm across my waist his breath
00:39:38slow and even i stared at the ceiling and felt the particular silence of someone who has crossed a line
00:39:43they can't cross back over you own me mia espinoza i pressed my face into his shoulder and tried not
00:39:49to
00:39:49feel how much i wanted that to be true don't fall i told myself i was already falling
00:39:56one week later i came home to flowers that's not quite accurate i came home to an abundance of
00:40:01flowers a proliferation a situation that had clearly escalated well beyond what any reasonable person
00:40:06would call a floral arrangement every surface in the living room held a different vase the whole space
00:40:11smelled like a greenhouse had moved in while i was out standing in the middle of it introducing
00:40:15herself with a warm professional smile was a woman named ollie she was in her 30s polished very pretty
00:40:21and she was looking at the door behind me in a way that told me exactly who she was waiting
00:40:24for
00:40:25emilio came in 30 seconds later he stopped swept his eyes across the flowers then across me and
00:40:30something in his face went immediately soft and that way it only does when it's just us hello wife i
00:40:35missed
00:40:35you he dropped kisses on my forehead i held his forearms and forgot for a moment that there was a
00:40:41third person in the room you must be mr reyes i'm ollie i'm helping mrs reyes with the wedding florets
00:40:47emilio looked at all the flowers again how many flowers does a wedding need as many as i like you
00:40:53told me i could have whatever i wanted he leaned in close eyes warming i was thinking of something else
00:41:00entirely when i said that i shoved his chest he laughed and pulled me into his side i didn't
00:41:06notice ollie's expression yet i would the roses were imported from bulgaria apparently perfect for
00:41:16expressing passion a good fit for your character sir i looked at emilio he was looking at me what do
00:41:23you
00:41:23think they look pretty ollie pivoted to lily's before i finished the sentence they open with just
00:41:29a little attention and her eyes lingered on emilio the way eyes linger when they're not really looking
00:41:35at flowers they look cheap then orchids high maintained in it but a man like you can definitely
00:41:43afford to spoil someone stop both of them looked at me i know what you're doing and i don't like
00:41:51it
00:41:51ollie gave me a polished innocent smile mrs reyes i assure you it's mrs reyes you're flirting with my
00:41:59man in my house i don't like that emilio made a sound that was almost a laugh he lowered his
00:42:06mouth
00:42:06to my ear you're about to become a mob queen show her your claws i turned back to ollie you're
00:42:12fired
00:42:12you heard my wife security came she went the door closed emilio was grinning you called me your man
00:42:21because you are
00:42:24i told him he was sleeping on the couch in respect this was optimistic of me for what sin exactly
00:42:30you
00:42:31didn't shut her down you just stood there i was looking at you the whole time i didn't hear a
00:42:36word
00:42:36she said that's not the point couch i turned to walk away he caught my wrist i had about one
00:42:43second
00:42:43of thinking i'd won before he lifted me over his shoulder like i was a bag he was rearranging
00:42:50i squealed i couldn't help it put me down you'll be down when i decide you're down he carried me
00:42:57out
00:42:57of the room while i laughed and hit his back and told him he was ridiculous he ignored all of
00:43:02it with
00:43:02complete serenity on the other side of the city in the abandoned house where franco had died damien
00:43:07moved through the filthy rooms alone he stopped at the body crouched down studied what was left of
00:43:13the man who had been his instrument he stood up slowly coward he looked around at the decay the silence
00:43:21the ruined plan then he pulled out his phone guess i'm on my own now
00:43:30the letter appeared with breakfast morning wife you got a letter
00:43:37i read the first line and went completely still it was an admission letter nursing school i never
00:43:42applied for this i did he said it casually like it was obvious like the most natural thing in the
00:43:47world
00:43:47was for a cartel boff to submit nursing school applications on behalf of a woman he'd coerced
00:43:51into a contract marriage how did you even know i wanted to go back he stopped moving turned to
00:43:57look at me with an expression i'd never seen on him before completely serious completely open
00:44:03the night you saved me you said you were a nursing school dropout the storage room the blood
00:44:10his voice fading in and out as i pressed gauze to his chest trying to keep him here
00:44:16i'm a nursing school dropout you'll survive he'd been carrying that for months i listened to
00:44:22everything you say he took my hand and kissed the back of it told me the semester started on the
00:44:2618th
00:44:27two weeks he'd arranged bodyguards i started to object he said two not a convoy and i let it go
00:44:32then i sat very still looking at the letter the 18th my period was late more than late i thought
00:44:39about the soreness i'd been ignoring for a week and a cold plerry moved through me fast and certain
00:44:47bathroom i was already gone
00:44:52i sat on the bathroom floor for a long time the test was in my hand two lines unmistakable
00:45:00sitting there in the morning light like the simplest and most complicated fact in the world
00:45:06pregnant i pressed my palm flat against my stomach nothing felt different yet the same body the same
00:45:12skin but somewhere in there something had started something that was half me and half the man in the
00:45:17kitchen who had kissed the back of my hand and said i listened to everything you say the man who
00:45:21had
00:45:21carried me out of that building who said you own me and meant it with his whole body the man
00:45:26i needed to
00:45:27tell i thought about what it meant to be pregnant with the cartel king's child the leverage of it the
00:45:32danger of it the way a baby becomes a weapon in this world whether you want it to or not
00:45:37i thought about tomos about all the traps i'd walked into already and then i stopped thinking about danger
00:45:44and just felt it i'm going to be a mother emilio is going to be a father i wiped my
00:45:50face stood up open
00:45:52the door diego was in the hall where's emilio meeting miss with damian take me to him please
00:46:02it's important the boss doesn't like to be disturbed but something in my face must have convinced him
00:46:08he nodded i followed him out the test folded in my palm my heart running ahead of my feet
00:46:19diego walked me to the study door and left i could hear voices inside emilio and damrion low and urgent
00:46:26i raised my hand to knock and stopped the test was still in my palm two lines the most important
00:46:32thing i'd ever held then amadio's voice cut through the door my hand dropped i stood very still
00:46:41i knew i should walk away i knew that eavesdropping on the cartel king's private meetings was the kind
00:46:47of thing that ended badly in this world i pressed my ear to the door anyway he could have been
00:46:52useful
00:46:53he's mia's only blood relative tied to palosio's mob it was leverage what the hell is going on with
00:47:02you i'm just saying as the east coast cartel king you could play more strategically like not shooting
00:47:09your cousin-in-law in the head my blood went cold
00:47:15i couldn't move what i have with mia is none of your business
00:47:20damian said something else something about fixing things with her keeping tomas alive as a peace
00:47:26offering but the words were coming through water now muffled and distant shooting your cousin-in-law in
00:47:32the head tomas was dead emilio had killed him my cousin the only blood family i'd left the person
00:47:41whose life i'd accepted a mob marriage to save and emilio had shot him while to manis was under his
00:47:47roof
00:47:47while i was sleeping down the hall thinking i'd kept him safe damian said something about the
00:47:52forged will next lying about her inheritance just to marry her a sound at the door emilio's voice
00:47:59sharpened who's there
00:48:05i turned and ran
00:48:08i was packing before i fully decided to pack the suitcase was open on the bed and my hands were
00:48:14moving and the test was still in my fist i don't know why i kept holding it and emilio came
00:48:20through
00:48:20the door 20 seconds later face pale wait what are you doing what does it look like mia let's talk
00:48:28i don't negotiate with the devil i tried to pass him he grabbed my arm stop let's talk i jerked
00:48:35free
00:48:36you lied you killed my cousin then you lied again there's nothing left to say he exhaled sharp and
00:48:43frustrated is killing your scumbag cousin really that big of a deal i stared at him i waited for
00:48:48a moment to feel shocked but there was none left of course he said that of course he was a
00:48:52criminal boss
00:48:52who ran an empire built on violence and i had somehow convinced myself that the version of him who
00:48:56kissed my forehead and listened to everything i said was the real one does a human life mean anything
00:49:01to you i'm a criminal boss you knew that when you signed the contract which you forged my aunt never
00:49:11wanted me to marry you did she a long silence he didn't deny it you added the marriage clause to
00:49:20trap me
00:49:20so what i run a mob be grateful i didn't take you by force the words landed like a slap
00:49:27grateful he
00:49:28wanted me to be grateful so grateful grateful you dragged me into this hell got my cousin killed and
00:49:34got me the test was still in my hand i looked down at it the two lines looked back you'll
00:49:40never know i
00:49:41thought you don't deserve to i zipped the suitcase shut just let me go emilio you know i can't in
00:49:51one
00:49:51motion i reached across him and grabbed the gun from his hip i had it pressed against myself before
00:49:56i thought about what i was doing the barrel cold against my ribs my hand shaking tears running down
00:50:01my face mia his voice had changed completely all the cold stripped out of it either you let me walk
00:50:09out or i pull this trigger he went very still then he extended his hand palm up the way you'd
00:50:19extend a
00:50:19hand to a frightened animal give me the gun and i'll let you leave just like that yes you know
00:50:28i can't
00:50:28say no to you just give me the gun please the please undid something in my chest i hated that
00:50:37it
00:50:37did after a long moment i laid the gun in his palm he tucked it away without breaking eye contact
00:50:43we can
00:50:44fix this we can pretend none of this happened i can't pretend everything between us was built on lies
00:50:51he stepped closer his voice dropped thick with something he was fighting to contain my feelings for
00:50:58you aren't lies a tear ran down my face i looked at his face really looked at it this man
00:51:04who had
00:51:04saved me and lied to me and killed my cousin and kissed my forehead in the morning all of it
00:51:09true
00:51:09at the same time none of it simple i took his hand i placed the ring in his palm goodbye
00:51:15emilio he
00:51:16stood frozen fist closing around the ring as i walked out the door
00:51:23i went to serena's she opened the door before i finished knocking took one look at my face and
00:51:29pulled me inside without asking any questions she made tea she handed me tissues she sat with
00:51:35me on the sofa and let me cry until there was nothing left then she waited he killed my cousin
00:51:43he lied about the inheritance everything from the beginning was fabricated to get me into that house
00:51:51serena was very quiet she handed me another tissue
00:51:58too quiet i looked at her serena he killed my cousin why aren't you shocked
00:52:08she couldn't meet my eyes serena why do you look like you already knew a long silence the kind
00:52:16that means the answer is going to change things i brought domus to him the room tilted what
00:52:26my dad is a mafia don
00:52:30i heard the words i processed them in a very distant clinical way
00:52:35the way you process information that is too large to fit into the ordinary world you lied to me
00:52:44for five years i hid it to protect you so you'd never get dragged into this mob world
00:52:52but then emilio showed up and did you know he killed my cousin the silence that followed was the
00:52:58worst silence of my life yes emilio shot your cousin in front of me i pulled away from her she
00:53:05reached
00:53:06for my arm mia please my family doesn't change who i am what you mean to me
00:53:15you sound just like him i lied to protect you
00:53:20you watched him die and you didn't tell me i stood up she scrambled after me saying my name reaching
00:53:27for my arm i got to the door mia wait we're done serena i ran
00:53:36the street was cold serena chased me for half a block before her phone rang and she stopped i didn't
00:53:43look back i just walked arms wrapped around myself no destination no plan just moving because stopping
00:53:48felt like drowning i thought about my mother who had died and left me in a world i didn't understand
00:53:53i thought about toas who had sold me to a monster for gambling debts i thought about the ring i'd
00:53:57left
00:53:58in emilio's hand and the test still folded in my pocket and the fact that i was pregnant and alone
00:54:02in the
00:54:02dark with nowhere to go the city moved around me indifferent a car slowed alongside me i squinted
00:54:10emilio the door opened not emilio damien
00:54:18relax i'm not dragging you anywhere then what do you want i have orders to stay with you but
00:54:26i can take you to a safe house emmanuel won't know he watched my face patient almost gentle i can
00:54:33even
00:54:33get you out of the country i stared at him damien was smiling that easy smile hands in his pockets
00:54:41like he was offering him a ride to the airport nothing in his face looked wrong why would you
00:54:46help me you're his brother i'd like to balance out some of the bad i've done i'll handle your phone
00:54:52he put a tracker on it even works when it's off i looked down at my phone then at him
00:54:58then at the
00:54:59dark street stretching in both directions with nowhere to go i handed him the phone he took it
00:55:04and i climbed into the back seat i was so tired i was so tired of being afraid of running
00:55:10of trying
00:55:11to stay one step ahead of men with more power than i would ever have the leather seat was warm
00:55:15damien got into the front without speaking there's water in the back if you need it
00:55:21i reached for the bottle opened it took a long drink thank you damien you're a good man he watched
00:55:28me in the rearview mirror and something moved across his face that i didn't have time to read
00:55:35the water tasted like water that was the last thing i registered clearly then the edges of the
00:55:41window started to blur the street lights smeared into long yellow streaks my hand felt very heavy
00:55:47i looked down at the bottle in my lap and thought distantly that something was wrong what
00:55:56the thought didn't finish i slumped sideways and the world went out like a light
00:56:02in the front seat damien watched me through the mirror his easy smile had changed into something else
00:56:08entirely something that had been waiting behind it all along sweet little mia you have no idea what's
00:56:16coming for you or for my arrogant half-brother we're on our way have the island ready outside the city
00:56:26light slid past and fell behind us and emilio's mansion disappeared into the dark and i was gone
00:56:31before i knew i'd been taken i woke up to the sound of ocean that was wrong i lived in
00:56:40the city the city
00:56:41didn't sound like that steady and vast and indifferent like breathing from a long way away
00:56:46i lay still for a moment with my eyes closed waiting for the world to reassemble itself into something
00:56:52familiar it didn't i opened my eyes an unfamiliar room whitewashed walls wooden shutters light coming
00:56:59in sideways and gold not a hotel not anywhere i'd ever been i got up and went to the window
00:57:06trees ocean nothing else in any direction the door opened behind me good you're awake i turned around
00:57:16he was standing in the frame hands in his pockets looking pleased with himself in that particular way
00:57:22that meant something had gone exactly according to plan where am i somewhere no one can find you
00:57:28not even my brother the memory came back all at once the car the water the bottle in my hand
00:57:36the
00:57:36edges of the window blurring you kidnapped me smart girl i see why emilio kept you around
00:57:45but not smart enough he moved into the room and i stepped back until the wall found me
00:57:55he told me about palacio not the way i'd understood it franco as emilio's enemy using me as a pawn
00:58:01damien had been behind franco the whole time he'd found my cousin the moment he ran my background check
00:58:06he'd built the trap handed tomas to franco and watched the whole thing play out from inside emilio's
00:58:10house franco palano was a fucking idiot but he was a useful one until your cartel king shot him in
00:58:17the head
00:58:18my cousin died because of you his expression didn't change i slapped him his head snapped
00:58:25sideways a beat of absolute silence then he turned back and the easy smile was gone replaced by something
00:58:32that had always been underneath it he grabbed my throat and slammed me into the wall you're lucky i need
00:58:40you or i'd choke the life out of you right now his eyes moved over me in a way that
00:58:46made my skin crawl
00:58:47if my cold-hearted brother is obsessed with you there must be something worth exploring he leaned in
00:58:55i bit him hard
00:58:59he pulled back with a snarl and i saw his arm draw back don't please i'm pregnant his fist stopped
00:59:06the room went very quiet damien stared at me the hurry draining out of his face and being replaced by
00:59:12something more dangerous calculation you're pregnant with emilio's baby i nodded my throat
00:59:19ached where his hand had been he stepped back then he started laughing really laughing the kind that
00:59:24fills a room and i stood against the wall and watched him and felt a cold creeping dread oh this
00:59:29is gold palami actually pulled it off i thought his plan to knock you up was ridiculous emilio would
00:59:34never never what there's a rumor he's infertile maybe it's real maybe he spread it so women wouldn't
00:59:39chase him either way you and that baby just changed everything he headed for the door still grinning
00:59:45what are you going to do to me he turned one hand on the frame relax i was gonna let
00:59:52my men have some
00:59:53fun with you but now i need that baby unharmed he told me about the island pacific private surrounded
01:00:07by his army and buried in the ground all around the house explosives enough to bring everything down
01:00:13triggered by a detonator he kept on his person if emilio tries anything boom then he left me there
01:00:19i slid down the wall and sat on the floor and tried to think the ocean kept making its vast
01:00:26in a myrient sound outside the shuttered window you're on a private pacific island surrounded by
01:00:32a full army with bombs underneath you i pressed both hands flat against my stomach i'm going to get us
01:00:39out of here i didn't know if that was true i said it anyway because someone had to i thought
01:00:46about
01:00:46the note emilio had tucked into a nursing school envelope i listened to everything you say i thought
01:00:52about the way he'd lifted me out of franco's building like i was something worth carrying
01:00:56i thought about his fist closing around my ring find me i thought please find me
01:01:03the door stayed closed the ocean kept breathing i stayed on the floor and i waited
01:01:11on the third night a hand touched my shoulder i jolted awake already pulling back already opening
01:01:16my mouth to scream and a hand covered it a familiar weight a familiar smell mia it's me a voice
01:01:23in my
01:01:23ear barely a breath i collapsed into him he held me for exactly three seconds his arms around me his
01:01:30chin on my head the realness of him solid and overwhelming and then he pulled back and cupped my
01:01:35face and checked me the way he'd checked me in the warehouse all those months ago systematic and
01:01:40frantic at the same time are you hurt no how did serena and your mafia princess friend has a helicopter
01:01:46he pressed his lips to my forehead quick and fierce follow my lead we're heading to the chopper
01:01:50stay close stay quiet he had a gun in his hand he opened the door checked the corridor and guided
01:01:55me
01:01:55out into the dark we made it 30 feet damien's voice came from ahead of us easy and amused like
01:02:04he'd been
01:02:04waiting since when does the cartel king use knockout drugs to sneak in emilio stopped gun raised since
01:02:12when do you skip dinner
01:02:16damien stepped out of the shadows in his hand raised between two fingers like a cigarette
01:02:22was the detonator since the day dad handed you the cartel his thumb hovered over the button
01:02:30emilio moved in front of me without thinking about it blocking me with his body drop the gun brother
01:02:40emilio dropped it you want the cartel fine i'll give it to you i don't want the stupid mob
01:02:46it's you it's always been you his voice had broken open and underneath the ease and the planning and
01:02:53the long patient game was something rawr something that had been sitting in that house for years
01:02:57growing in the dark then take me do whatever you want but let me a go don't drag her into
01:03:04this
01:03:06it happened in less than a second emilio crossing the corridor in two strides shoulder dropping crashing
01:03:11into his brother the detonator flew from damian's hand but damio's smile came back colder than before
01:03:16no your offspring isn't getting out today either he turned to me slowly and in that moment nothing
01:03:25in his face was the cartel king nothing was the man who made rooms go silent and had people removed
01:03:30he just looked at me like i was the only thing in the room that mattered you're pregnant
01:03:36i nodded his jaw set he turned back to demand not happening
01:03:45then we all die his thumb moved emilio lunged he of them hit the window behind
01:03:52them and went through it in a shower of glass and frame and night air
01:03:59emilio
01:04:02silence then the night outside was just the ocean and the dark and the sound of my own breathing
01:04:08ragged and desperate i ran for the door
01:04:13they were both on the ground outside unconscious not moving damian face down in the dirt emilio on his
01:04:22back with his eyes closed and one arm thrown wide and glass in his hair i heard voices serena marco
01:04:29running toward me i dropped to my knees beside emilio
01:04:35emilio emilio wake up we have to go
01:04:39mia marco was already beside me hands on emilio's chest pressing and counting
01:04:45i sat there and held emilio's hand and watched marco's face and couldn't breathe
01:04:52come back come back
01:04:59emilio coughed his chest heaved his eyes opened
01:05:04everyone let out a breath at the same time
01:05:07i'm okay
01:05:09we need to move
01:05:11he started to get up i helped him my hands shaking choppers ready this way emilio stood
01:05:18unsteady and looked at damian's limp body
01:05:23you go ahead i need to finish him
01:05:29i'm not leaving you you want to watch me shoot my own brother
01:05:33i don't care
01:05:36you're pregnant mia go his voice was gentle but final the voice that meant he'd already
01:05:43decided promise you'll come i promise serena took my arm i let her pull me away looking back
01:05:50over my shoulder at emilio standing over his brother in the dark he didn't look back at me he was
01:05:54already somewhere else somewhere cold and necessary he's going to be fine he's emilio reyes we were 20
01:06:00yards from the house then 30. the helicopter was somewhere ahead its blades beginning to turn i kept
01:06:06walking he promised he promised he promised
01:06:12the world turned white the sound hit me a full second after the light a wall of pressure and noise
01:06:18that knocked me sideways serena's grip tearing loose i turned around the house was on fire
01:06:25not catching fire already fire instant and total a column of flame reaching up into the dark sky
01:06:31the windows gone the roof already folding the air tasted like smoke
01:06:37i couldn't move serena was saying something marco was saying something the helicopter blades were
01:06:43louder now someone was pulling at my arm and i couldn't move because emilio was in that house
01:06:48and he had promised and he was in that house
01:06:50no the word came out of me like something being torn out no emilio serena had both arms around me
01:06:57from behind holding me back i fought her i don't remember deciding to fight her my body just refused
01:07:02to go anywhere without him marco was already running back toward the burning house calling into his radio
01:07:11i stopped fighting i just stood there in serena's arms and watched the fire eat the house and felt the
01:07:18heat on my face and thought about a man in a study saying i listened to everything you say and
01:07:22a man
01:07:23in a corridor with his shoulder dropping and his body going through glass going through glass to keep
01:07:28a detonator out of his brother's hand going through glass for me the flames climbed higher the night was
01:07:33orange and black i pressed both hands over the small life inside me and i waited and i waited and
01:07:42i
01:07:42no one came five months later that's what the subtitle would say if my life were a movie five
01:07:50months later a neat jump cut all the grief and the waiting and the nights i lay awake with one
01:07:57hand
01:07:57on my stomach and the other pressed to my mouth to keep quiet compressed into three words and a hard
01:08:02cut to a woman on a street corner in white gloves me i'm eight months pregnant and i'm wearing white
01:08:08gloves
01:08:08and i'm standing on a sidewalk watching a homeless man run he thinks he's running from the two cars
01:08:14that boxed him in he's not he's running from me the car door opens i step out damien stops he
01:08:26looks
01:08:26older thinner five months on the street will do that five months knowing that the woman whose house you
01:08:31burnt out is carrying the air to the ray s cartel and is looking for you that will do it
01:08:36too i pull off
01:08:38one gloves finger by finger hello brother-in-law
01:08:44my men take him before he can speak wait mia we should talk yes we should
01:08:56the basement of the reyes mansion is very quiet i had diaz repaint it new lighting a good chair for
01:09:03me
01:09:03to sit in positioned at exactly the right distance i learned from the best after all i watched emilio
01:09:09run this house for months i know how it's done i sit with my legs rapes crossed and my hands
01:09:15folded over
01:09:15my stomach and i watched two of my men work damien screams he begs he says my name like it's
01:09:23a password
01:09:23that will open a door like some part of him still believes i'm the nursing student from the fast food
01:09:28restaurant who cried on a sofa and couldn't look emilio in the eye i'm not her anymore make this stop
01:09:33please i give the men a look they hit harder after a while i raise a hand and they stop
01:09:40the basement
01:09:41goes quiet except for damien's raggled breathing and the distant sound of the city outside
01:09:46i stand up and walk over to him
01:09:51tell me where he is damien looks up at me through blood his smile is still there somehow cracked and
01:09:58terrible come closer i'll tell you
01:10:05i lean down his mouth was near my ear and i stayed perfectly still and waited he's rotting in hell
01:10:13just like you will be you stupid i straightened up i pulled the gun from the back of my waistband
01:10:22the one diego had started leaving on my night state three months ago after the first two attempts
01:10:26on my life after i'd started running this operation alone and i shot damien once he slumped i stood there
01:10:34for a moment and looked at him emilio's brother the man who had built every trap i'd walked into
01:10:39the man who had burned down the house with emilio inside it then i peeled off the other glove
01:10:44folded both of them together and walked out
01:10:50diego was waiting in the rordo with a package mail address to your name ma'am he held it out
01:10:55the label read mia espinoza i frowned i thought i changed my last name on everything could be from before
01:11:05i took it
01:11:09i opened it in the study
01:11:12a file legal documents a will notarized witness dated three months before lesia died
01:11:19i read the first page and had to sit down 100 million dollars her actual inheritance not
01:11:26the fabricated clause amizio had invented to get me into his house the real thing the money she'd
01:11:31spent her life accumulating and had always meant to give to the niece she wrote letters to and called
01:11:35her girl where it all started i thought diego stood near the door mr reyes would have found you
01:11:42regardless of the inheritance
01:11:47sounds like him
01:11:48i turned to the last page and a small piece of paper fell out folded once the size of a
01:11:53fortune cookie
01:11:54slip i picked it up the handwriting was emilio's i'd seen it on a hundred things
01:11:58notes contracts the margin of a book he'd left open on the kitchen counter i'd have known it anywhere
01:12:02it said love at first sight i sat there holding that small piece of paper for a long time
01:12:08then i pressed it against my chest and closed my eyes i'll find you emirio reyes wherever you are
01:12:16he was in sicily i didn't know that yet i knew it the way you know things when you've been
01:12:21running
01:12:22someone's empire for five months and you've learned to read diego's face there was somewhere he wouldn't
01:12:27look some piece of information that lived just behind his careful professional expression but he
01:12:32wouldn't tell me and i understood why emirio had told him not to so i waited on a balcony overlooking
01:12:40the mediterranean a man in a wheelchair watched the ocean he'd been watching it for weeks the light
01:12:46changed the water changed he watched it all with the patience of someone who has decided not to go
01:12:52anywhere until they're ready serena flew to sicily on a tuesday she found him on the balcony thinner than
01:12:59she'd left him the ocean wind moving through his hair she dropped a photograph on his lap without
01:13:04greeting him first in the photo damien dead emilio picked up the photo looked at it for a long moment
01:13:11that's my girl she's gonna be pissed if you're not there when she gives birth
01:13:19i can't see her like this you could show up as a worm and she'd still love you i'm tired
01:13:24of lying to
01:13:25my best friend again she'll forgive you serena ground and sat down on the low wall beside his chair
01:13:33the mediterranean was the specific blue it gets in the late afternoon almost violet at the edges
01:13:38come back with me tomorrow i'm flying out in the morning no emilio i'll return when i can stand on
01:13:45my own feet i want her to know i'm still the man who can protect her and our baby serena
01:13:52stared at
01:13:52him for a long moment toxic masculinity from a cartel king who would have thought a beat you know you're
01:13:58kind of cute in a wheelchair don't let your bodyguard hear that he helps me to the bathroom serena laughed
01:14:05a real laugh surprised out of her she stood up and kissed the top of his head don't take too
01:14:10long
01:14:11she walked out emilio stayed on the balcony until the light was gone
01:14:18he reached into his pocket the ring was small and cold and familiar mia's engagement ring the one she'd
01:14:26placed in his palm in the bedroom and walked away from he'd been carrying it since that night through
01:14:31the crash through the window through however many surgeries he didn't fully remember through the
01:14:36months of physical therapy on this balcony overlooking the sea he turned it in his fingers he
01:14:41thought about the night in the alley when he'd looked up from the pavement and seen a woman he'd
01:14:44never met pressing gons to his chest and telling him to stop moving or he'd bleed more he'd been half
01:14:48dead and delirious and he thought i know you i don't know you yet but i know you lietia had
01:14:53talked
01:14:53about her for years her niece the nursing student the girl who sent letters and called every sunday and had
01:14:58her mother's stubbornness and her own fierce particular kindness he'd carried the shape of
01:15:03her before he knew her face he closed his hand around the ring i'm coming back to you mia the
01:15:09ocean
01:15:09was dark now the stars were coming out one by one over sicily i'm coming back
01:15:19two months later i thought giving birth at home would be easier i was wrong it's never easy
01:15:25i hate you i hate you emilio reyes almost there one more push i hate you i pushed the world
01:15:35split
01:15:35open and then there was a sound small and indignant and completely certain of itself
01:15:40and the doctor was saying something i couldn't hear and someone was crying and i thought it might be
01:15:45me ma'am you need to stay with us you haven't seen your baby but i'm just so tired i
01:15:51was tired in a
01:15:52way i had never been tired before down into the marrow my body suddenly hollow and enormous at the
01:15:57same time stay stay you have to stay my eyes closed someone said my name i tried to hold on
01:16:04then at the edge of the light a silhouette appeared in the doorway not diego not serena not a doctor
01:16:12a silhouette that moved the way only one person in my life had ever moved
01:16:18he was standing on his own feet that was the first thing i registered not that he was there
01:16:22not even that he was alive but that he was standing on his own two feet in the doorway of
01:16:27my hospital room wearing clothes i didn't recognize thinner than i remembered with a look on his face
01:16:31that i had no word for mia my name in his voice i had been so tired a moment ago
01:16:36the darkness had
01:16:37been pulling me down and i had been letting it because i didn't have anything left to fight with
01:16:41but my eyes opened emilio he crossed the room he dropped to his knees beside the bed he took my
01:16:47face in both hands and pressed his forehead to mine i felt him shaking this man who never shook
01:16:51who never showed anything who had spent 32 years building a wall around himself and had spent six
01:16:54months tearing it down for me he was shaking somewhere behind him a baby was crying our baby
01:16:59ours you came i told you i was coming back outside the hospital window the city was beginning its ordinary
01:17:05morning entirely aware that something fundamental had just changed inside i closed my eyes and held on to
01:17:10him and listened to the small indignant perfect sound of our daughter announcing herself to the world
01:17:14we were here both of us finally
01:17:19this is what i know now i know that love is not the clean safe thing i thought it would
01:17:23be
01:17:24when i was 22 and working at a fast food counter and keeping a wish list of what my life
01:17:27was supposed
01:17:28to become i thought love would feel like arriving somewhere i thought it would be warm and certain
01:17:33and uncomplicated it is none of those things it is a man pressing gauze to a wound in a back
01:17:40room
01:17:41it is a ring in a palm and a door closing and a house going up in flames
01:17:46it is five months of running an empire i didn't ask for learning the weight of a gun and the
01:17:52patience
01:17:52required to wait for someone who promised to come back he is not a good man in the simple sense
01:17:58i know what he runs and what it costs and i have made my peace with the distance between who
01:18:03he is
01:18:03out there and who he is in this room holding our daughter like she's the most fragile and important
01:18:09thing he's ever been handed he is sitting in the chair beside my bed and she is asleep on his
01:18:14chest
01:18:14and he is not looking at anything in the room except her she has his dark eyes she has already
01:18:19even at
01:18:20one day old a particular expression of absolute conviction that i recognize from watching him walk into
01:18:24rooms i saved a man in an alley once i was 22 and afraid and i had no idea what
01:18:30i was saving him into
01:18:32best mistake i ever made
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